Can i use senior railcard in europe

France SNCF :. DB BahnCard can be purchased online via DB website first you'll receive temporary card by email, you can print it yourself and start traveling, while DB also will send you permanent one by regular mail or ticket counters in Germany. For shorter periods of time DB offers so-called trial BahnCards 25 for as low as 19 euro usually valid for 3 months. The only important nuance to keep in mind with DB BahnCards is the fact that they are subscription based, which means automatic prolongation you cancel it at least 6 weeks before expiry.

Besides DB BahnCards almost all the local German transport assosiations Verkehrsverbund offer some kind of senior discounts can be seasonal or daily , so before you travel it might be a good idea to check local transport assosiation.

NB: keep in mind that in Hungary seniors 65 years of age not only travel for free by rail transport, but also on state wide bus services Volanbusz. Step 3, now work out what point to point fares would be Go to the How to buy European train tickets page and select the starting city for each journey you plan to make. On the following page, select the destination city.

I'll tell you the best routes and trains between those cities and which website to use to book or price it. European trains normally open for reservations 90 days before departure or in a few cases or days and in eastern Europe only 60 days, If your European trip is still many months away, pick a random date in the next days and check fares for that date.

The prices won't change much! Don't rely on a ticketing agency in your home country to tell you point to point fares, or believe 'point to point comparisons' made by people trying to sell you a railpass. Overseas agencies often can't access the cheap fares for every operator. So I repeat, follow the advice on the How to buy European train tickets page.

You'll usually also see a more expensive fare called standard or Standardpreis or Flexpreis or Base price or similar, which is the top-of-the-range fare which you'd pay at the station on the day. So if you demand flexibility, this is the price with which to compare the cost per day of a pass. Yes, a Eurail may well save money over these expensive on-the-day full-price fares, depending on how far you travel. Railpasses only make financial sense for Italy if you plan to travel a significant distance every day, or perhaps make two medium-distance trips every day, which few people do.

If you're prepared to forego flexibility and book cheap no-refunds no-changes advance purchase fares you can save quite a bit over the cost of pass. This is by far the cheapest way to make such a circuit, if you can book ahead and don't want flexibility. If you want to stay flexible and are under 28 years old , a pass can save money over full-flex on-the-day prices. On the other hand, if you're over 28 you're still better sticking with regular tickets even if you pay full price at the station.

Booked months ahead at www. I would think long and hard before choosing to make a London-Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam circuit using a pass rather than advance-purchase tickets.

You don't need to specify exactly what date you want your Eurail pass to start when you buy it. The pass validity will start on whatever day you validate it at a station in Europe, which can be done any time in the 11 months after you buy it. So even if you bought your pass in March to use in July, then had to postpone your trip until September for some personal reasons, this wouldn't be a problem - you'd simply keep the pass and validate it when you got to Europe in September instead.

Example pass : This is a global days in 2 months Flexi pass. The real thing will be printed on security-background ticket stock. As you can see, the overall validity period here is from 25 March to 24 May, and there are 10 spaces marked 1 to Simply write the date in one of those spaces each time you want to 'spend' a pass day. Each box gives free travel from midnight to midnight beyond midnight if using a sleeper train , subject to paying any reservation fees or surcharges of course.

A Continuous pass looks very similar, but without the 'flexi days' boxes. Larger image. Courtesy of Eurail The Eurail pass travel diary The Eurail train travel diary: You simply need to fill this out each time you board a train. You send it back after your trip free postage and it's used for market research purposes. If you forget to fill it in, most conductors will simply wait while you get your pen out if they even bother asking to see it in the first place , but in theory there could be a 'fine' so remember to fill it in before or as soon as you board.

You can ask for more pages at any main station if you run out of space. Validating your pass When you get to Europe and want to start using your pass, you need to 'validate' it at any main station before you get on your first train.

You do this at the ticket office, the booking clerk will enter the start date on your pass and rubber stamp it. Your Eurail pass is then ready to use and the overall pass validity period starts.

So if you had a days-inmonths pass, the overall 2 month period would start from that date. Alternatively, if you're absolutely sure of the date when you want your overall pass validity to start, you can specify that date when you buy your pass. It then arrives pre-validated from that date and there's no need to validate it at a station.

Using your pass Continuous type Eurail passes are then valid for unlimited train travel every day through the whole pass validity period. Flexi type Eurail passes give you a certain number of unlimited travel days during the overall pass validity period, which is usually 2 months starting on the date you validate the pass.

If the number of days is, say, 10, there will be 10 empty boxes printed on your Eurail pass. On a day when you decide to use one of those 10 days of unlimited travel, you simply write the date in one of the boxes in ball-point pen. You now have unlimited train travel from midnight to midnight on that date. You do not have to decide in advance which 10 days these will be, you can decide as you go, simply writing the date in a box each time you want to 'spend' a day of free travel, until all your boxes of free travel are used up.

Tip 1: It's a beginner's mistake, but even if you have a fixed itinerary, don't pre-date all your boxes for the dates you think you'll need them at the beginning of your tour. Unexpected things can happen, once you have written a date in a box, you can't change it. Play safe, write in the dates as you go along. Tip 2: You aren't forced to use your pass for every train trip you want to make. On the other hand, if you bought a 5-day pass and only planned to make 4 longer distance trips, you may as well use the spare 5th day for this day trip.

Unlimited travel means unlimited travel! I'm not sure which part of 'un' people don't understand, the 'u' or the 'n'! You can take as many trains as you like between midnight and midnight that day, 1 train or 20 trains, 10 miles or miles, you can stay on trains all day if you want to.

Though there may be seat reservations or small supplements to pay on certain trains, more about that below. Filling in the travel diary Your pass comes in a cover, and attached to that cover is a blank travel diary. Each time you take a train, you need to record the date, where it's from and where it's to, in black or blue ink - that's in addition to filling in the travel date on the pass itself if it's a Flexi-type pass. The railways use this as market research, helping them to allocate Eurail revenue between operators.

To make it clear, Brussels to Nuremberg with a change in Frankfurt requires two separate entries, Brussels-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Nuremberg. However, if a conductor found you had made only one entry, Brussels to Nuremberg, they should point it out and maybe ask you to change it but that's all. In theory there's a fine if the conductor finds that you haven't filled it in at all, but in practice most conductors will simply ask you to do so if you haven't.

However, there's always the risk that you'll meet a jobsworth, so play safe and fill it in while you're waiting for the train or as soon as you get on. If you're using a mobile Eurail pass in the Eurail app on your smartphone rather than the classic printed pass, mobile passes are new in September there's no paper travel diary, you just use the Eurail pass app's journey planner to select and add a trip, or you can add one manually. Which trains can you use with a pass? See map of rail network in the Eurail countries.

Eurail passes also cover many but not all private operators in Switzerland and a few other countries, as shown in the country by country guide. Map of rail network in the Eurail countries. You may be given a small timetable booklet with your pass People often think that the trains in the booklet are the only trains you're allowed to take with your Eurail pass. Nonsense, of course not! You're allowed to use any regular scheduled train run by the operators covered by your pass, whether it's in that booklet or not!

Top tip, download the Railplanner App I recommend downloading the Railplanner App for your smartphone from www. This is a great Europe-wide timetable app which you can use to check train times whilst on the move - the timetable works offline, so no data cost issues. Eurail passes don't give free travel on buses, trams or metros in big cities as these are usually run by urban transit authorities, not by the national train operator.

Eurail passes don't cover some private train operators For example, passes don't cover the Euskotren narrow-gauge local trains in Spain, the Circumvesuviana railway Naples-Pompeii-Sorrento or the Jungfrau line in Switzerland. Nor do Eurail passes usually cover the private operators who now compete with the state-owned national train operator on a handful or routes, such as Italo high-speed trains in Italy which compete with the national train operator Trenitalia - as a passholder, you have to use Trenitalia.

Again, the country-by-country guide gives details of what is and isn't covered in each country. The best resource for finding train times anywhere in Europe for use with a Eurail pass?

That's the excellent German Railways online timetable at www. It covers data for the national rail operators across almost all of Europe. It doesn't hold data for Italo, FEVE, Euskotren, Regiojet, Leo Express or the Circumvesuviana and so on, only for the main national operators, so as a general rule, any train shown in its database can be used with a Eurail pass, although supplements or special fares must be paid on some trains.

It also helpfully says 'please reserve' on trains which have compulsory reservations. More info. Couchettes, 4-berth : Much more room than 6-berth! Using a pass on overnight trains You need to pay a fee to use a couchette or sleeper with your pass, the fee is usually per bed, not per compartment.

Berth fees for passholders are listed for specific routes in the Eurail pass reservation page. If you have a flexi-type pass, an overnight train only uses one day on your pass, the day of departure.

Here is the new rule, :which replaced the old 'After ' rule in January A Eurail flexi pass day normally runs from midnight to midnight. But if you board any overnight train before midnight, and do not change trains after midnight , you only need to use one day on a Flexi pass, the day of departure. It no longer matters what time your sleeper train leaves on day 1, or what time it arrives on day 2. The date you write on your pass is that of day 1.

Checkout a few shots from their Interrail adventure here. Interrailing is for Seniors too! In September we gave Louise Hammond and Andrew Baxter a chance to take their chosen winning itinerary on the rails, so to speak!

Louise tells us in her own words what it was like travelling to all their chosen sights by train in her day-by-day diary To find their contact details see the list of Train Operating Companies. Skip navigation. Renew my Railcard Manage my Railcard. Frequently Asked Questions? Most frequently asked questions How do I purchase my Railcard online?

You will not be able to travel on discounted tickets until you have your Railcard. A: Yes. A: Railcards issued at stations cannot be renewed online.

A: Not if you already hold a Senior Railcard that was issued by our online service. A: Your Railcard is not valid during the morning peak period when travelling between two stations in the Network Railcard area of validity. A: Check your mailbox including your junk mail for an email from our Railcard team. A: Yes, you can. A: No. A: The Railcard discount does not cover charges on various articles or animals. A: Only if there is no ticket office, or the ticket office is closed and there is no ticket machine available to buy your discounted ticket at the station at which you began your journey.

A: Yes, providing that there are reservations available on the service on which you are travelling. Please check with the local ticket office staff before buying tickets. If the problem persists, please contact the customer services team on A: The download code allows you to add a purchased digital Railcard to the Railcard app on your device.

Click here for more information on download codes and managing your Railcard Please note that the Railcard app is available to download from the Apple Store and the Google Play store. A: If you have already purchased a digital Senior Railcard, you should have received an email which contains a download code.

A: Digital Railcard can be bought online only. A: If you lose the device where your digital Senior Railcard was downloaded, you will need to log in to account and remove it from the lost device.

Please note that you can only store your digital Railcard on a maximum of 2 devices. A: In most cases, your digital Senior Railcard will be available to use straight away. A: Yes! You can renew your digital Railcard within 30 days of its expiry to a digital Railcard. A: You cannot swap a plastic Railcard to a digital Railcard. A: You can store your digital Railcard on up to two devices at a time. A: You will need to contact our customer support team on so that we can better understand the activity that has caused your Railcard to be blocked.

A: If we detect suspicious activity on your Railcard, it will be blocked until we have had the chance to speak to you. A: Unfortunately, you can only have one version of your Railcard — either plastic or digital. The Railcard app is not compatible with Windows Phones. A: Please go to "Manage my Railcard" on the website homepage to log in to your account. A: If you are using a driving licence to apply, please make sure that the name you use to apply for your Railcard is typed into your application in exactly the same format in which it is shown on your driving licence.

A: If you have ordered a plastic Senior Railcard online, please allow up to 5 working days for delivery. You cannot travel on discounted tickets until you have received your Railcard. A: We accept machine readable passport codes from all countries except for those issued in the Philippines and Bangladesh prior to You will need to input: 10 digits or characters into the first box three letters in the second box identifying your nationality seven digits in the third box an F or M identifying your gender in the fourth box seven digits in the fifth box the last two digits of your passport code in the sixth box.

If you only have one digit in this section, please add a 0 in front of it. You must: use your full name as it is shown on your passport. A: In the first instance please contact Railcard Customer Services who will endeavour to resolve any issues that you have. You can: Email us: railcardhelp nationalrail.

A: If you opt for a digital Railcard, you must provide a photograph. A: We accept online payment via credit and debit cards. A: Please check that you have read each character of the code correctly.

A: You can renew your Senior Railcard bought online within 30 days of its expiry to a digital or a plastic Railcard. A: Unfortunately no. A: Railcard are available offline for a period of up to 72 hours. Unfortunately, once a Railcard has been issued it is non-refundable.